Really loved how the background of the Darkened Tardis worked out to highlight the Angel’s face- and the muted pointilism gave that slight stone shade to the whole project-and that face- just gorgeous twisted love in those inks, I had to pull back to not over-do the inks, and hopefully, I got it just right!

Well the Dr. Who project gets to add a new member to my Time Lords Rogue Gallery. One of the newer show villains- a “Weeping Angel” was commissioned by an awesome fan at Baltimore Comic Con for a gift for his signifigant other’s birthday. While I need to get Lords of the Cosmos rolling again, I am still getting research done for my next team pinup, and with Pittsburgh Comic Con coming up this weekend, this is a perfect time to fit in this artwork, and add it to my print gallery for future shows and as a portfolio piece.

Work notes- this creature has very little context- they are statues with sharp teeth that only move when you can see them, and they love to have odd hand and arm gestures like they are reaching towards you when “locked” in their static stone state. I tried to capture that facial expression and outlandish arm/hand gestures as well. Finally, I added the Tardis for a recognizable background to bring it into the WHOniverse from a graphic sense.

There are two pencils below, the first is a modified photo of the final artwork, I need to ink it very soon, so a full and proper scan is out of the question, I played with the contrast and brightness and it gave the pencils an otherworldly look. The lower penciled piece is a proper scan, but I did some work after it, which is the more completed penciled scan above it.

Well my fifth and final Dr. Who piece really turned out well in the final pen and ink version. Once I realized that the Black would be dominant on Davros’s person and life support machine, and the outer space background would be pure black and made a tactical decision to use Black as the dominant color for the nuke and Dalek killing Movellan POV. The center Dalek in full black with a “nuke flash” in the background was a fun way to do a Dalek differently, and the Movellan really pops with the black outlining the Dalek eye stalk and gun framing the beam cutting the figure. On a smaller note the pen and inks also really made the little details like the wires and screen partitions look really stylish as well. Overall, this piece worked for me, and was a great send off to my 5 piece Dr. Who series.

There were some small fixes on the hands of the two Cyber Troops in the foreground and alot of labor on the detail in the background. I elimated the tank driver as I really got into the nuts and bolts of how the tank space worked- and I didnt see the space for the main gun with that guy sitting there, sometimes you get more into this sort of thing than you think you will! Overall this piece turned out just like I imagined this scene would be which is a fun final result. The inks really brought out elements like the guns and cybermats- as well as highlighted the overall composition of the piece.

Davros: “Now, you will tell me the reason for every Dalek defeat. With that knowledge, I will programme them. With that knowledge, they will know their errors and how to avoid them. With that knowledge, there shall be no defeats! We will begin…..” from Genesis of the Daleks 1975

And so my fifth and final Dr. Who pinup begins. I knew in the back of my head I wanted to end on another classic villain I loved as a kid- Davros, the creator of the Daleks. As a fan of the militant villains that the FASA Dr Who RPG fleshed out in the 80’s I was obsessed with the crippled and evil Davros who was introduced in the 70’s on BBC as the twisted genius that created the cybernetic Daleks. Davros first appeared in the 1975 Episode “Genesis of the Daleks” and then back in 1979’s “Destiny of the Daleks” & 1984’s “Resurrection of the Daleks” where a new (and very lame) enemy of the Daleks called the Movellans apparently had the Daleks at a “logic” impasse in a huge intergalactic war.

To quote: “For years, the two were locked in a long stalemate, each side’s purely logical battle keeping them in deadlock. Hundreds of Dalek and Movellan battlecruisers flew across space, without a single shot being fired. ”

Again, more lame from the BBC- we never saw the fleets, and the Daleks were always thinking outside the box on the show, now they dont fire their guns and can’t make a move in a war?? as a fan, I was left thinking “What the f***?”

The Movellans ultimately defeated the Daleks offscreen with a biological virus…. as a fan, I was left thining “What the f***?” yet again.

The Movellans were androids with a metrosexual/rasta look that were the height of lame late 70’s/ early 80’s design. It looked as if the Movellans came off the set of SOUL TRAIN or SOLID GOLD, I was not pleased at all as a fan of the Daleks that this was the endgame.

I WANTED THE DALEKS TO WIN- and if they were to lose- the freaking Movellans? A totally lame villain didnt deserve to win… surely they had a better nemesis than that. And then Dr. Who the BBC television show went away unti the 2005 reboot, where a new improved Davros was involved with a war against the Time Lords and the Daleks kicked enough ass to fight the Time Lords into a mutually assured destruction in a “Time War” – and I was left thinking “What about the Movellans? As much as they sucked- THEY WON THE WAR!! Where was the resolution?” On top of that the BBC never showed the Movellans after 1979, and we never saw the galactic war the Daleks Lost- and then, did they come back and win the war to become the New super Daleks? WHAT HAPPENED THIS MADE NO SENSE FROM START TO LACK OF FINISH?!?!?!

Ah poor/incomplete writing and cheap production values from the BBC yet again- a storyline we never liked …that we never saw a resolution to ….just gets ignored, and then we just move on since the writers realized the Daleks kicked ass and needed to be the top dog of the villain food chain of the Dr. Who Universe…. and who needs a lame android from the late 70’s to get in the way of that?

In the Movellan Dr Who Wikia page I saw that a 1997 book based on the 8th Doctor tried to retcon the old Androids off the show… to quote from the Movellan Entry here… where the Daleks lost a writer would eliminate the old dreadlocked robots once and for all…..

And I realized that nobody liked the Movellans, and the BBC was just lazy and hiding from a lame decision in the first place. So this project was in many was a correction to do several things, besides being a great piece of Dr. Who artwork.

1- Show the Daleks kicking ass on the Movellans

2- Davros running the show from a headquarters area- he sort of looks like the Crypt Keeper, which works for him here.

3- Illustrate elements from the War on the Movellans that we never saw, at all. This includes a space ship battle with a Movellan Ship and Dalek ship (hey wasnt this a battle in space with two war-fleets?) the Daleks using a nuke in a city (they are radioactive mutants in hard shells, wouldnt they use nukes liberally on the enemy?) and finally the close up death of a Movellan via a Dalek. We all hate the Movellans so that brings some closure to the composition of the piece.

4- Make the up close Movellan death, horrific. I hated these guys and wanted to end this with a bang, so I felt a laser cutting one in half from a Dalek POV was what I wanted to see.

5- Make the continuity that I wanted (and I suspect many fans would as well) in one spectacular image around Davros, and the Daleks defeating the Movellans- once and for all, once Davros fixed the virus and put the Daleks back on top- then they are free to fight the Time Lords, or whatever adventures they need to have.

So here is my final pencils, pencil tracings from my thumbnails and layouts and the original source material I used for the character and ship models. I hope you enjoy this piece for some killer artwork, and well, my own little retcon with Davros, the Daleks and the Movellans -which in this piece the Movellans are sort of cool for once!

This simple quote above from 1967’s Dr Who Episode “TOMB OF THE CYBERMEN” sums up this set of cybernetic villains. They take over and make humanoids like them via use of forced surgery to cybernetic conversion to their army of Cybermen. And if this sounds like the BORG from Star Trek- yeah, they ripped off the concept in the 80’s for The Next Generation 20+ years later.

So as a kid in the 80’s I loved these guys- for a few reasons, cool design, neat appreances with Tom Baker, wierd voice modulation and the paramilitary look and military structure appealed to my love of toy soldiers and war movies. Of course they were supposed to be a cybernetic army that was also constantly converting new recruits forcibly into Cybermen, but again, this was mostly in your imagination. Thanks to special effects limitations and cheap BBC budgets you only saw a few of them on foot at any given time on the show- moving slowly and barely doing much. My love for them translated into two pieces of art in 1987 a logo from the show and a group of three Cybermen in a corridor- see below. Which brings us to 2013- and my 5 Doctor Who pinups- this is the fourth of five.

So here was my inspiration- in video clip form for this as I did research

1- The awesome anime of Dr. Who- Cybermen actually seem cool here and have a military force of attack ships and space cruisers, Ive cited this before- it was key to inspiring this whole project. They understand what I wanted in Dr. Who!

2- 1967’s TOMB OF THE CYBERMEN intro to the CYBER CONTROLLER who kicks ass for the 60’s (see the quote above, and the cool voice modulation!) here

4- A newer 2011 episode from Dr Who which has a little intro to the 12th Cyber Legion as a small aside here. This showed them with ships and a military structure we never saw before, thus the name for this pinup. This was like the Klingons in Star Trek the Motion Picture for a few minutes at the beginning, where you had this glimpse into a really cool environment for the villains you actually wanted to know about, but you as the viewer didnt get very much, and you were left wanting to know more.

5- Nazi tanks in Saving Private Ryan in this clip here the last bastion of a rag tag losing army trying to make this happen on the run- of course the “bad guys” are still proud and dangerous even in defeat- and I love the powerful images of the officers looking out of the top of the big tanks as they roll in the background, so I lifted the idea.

So then I made a list of what I wanted in this piece

1-Different models in the same pic- we never saw this on the show- and why not? A rag tag army of cyber soldiers- why not mix ranks of old and new?

2- Cyber Tomb of frozen reinforcements

3- Cybermat attack “pets” the metal bugs they use like dogs to attack and scout

4- A vehicle/heavy weapon- and the impact they are a military force, and look like some kind of military organization, as opposed to a bunch of guys shuffling in a group.

5- Cyber Controller

All five goals are here in the piece- the 1966/1967 models from the show and some from the 2006-2010 episodes- the kneeling guy is like a sapper engineer opening the tombs and running the cybermats while the new model Cyberman runs point with a heavy weapon I made up so they looked like actual heavy weapon soldiers- I made it like a minigun, but energy based with a back based reactor. Cyber Controller from the 1967 video clip is running point from the top of the tank like the German Officers in the Saving Private Ryan Tank attack video clip- note the tubes coming from his head (something I also added into the Cyber Controller that was not seen on the show, but in my mind- makes sense!) as he “links up” with the troops, orbital ships, communications etc. A cyber-tank (with logo on the front) reminiscent of Warhammer 40k also fills the composition background. I wasnt sure on the design for the tank and considered going ultra futuristic but hey, it’s cool and retro so I figured “why not? it’s working!”. We as fans have never see them with any vehicles, which is lame for an army- right and it sort of fit the Saving Private Ryan imagery. Three Cybermats are present- can you find them? And the Tomb of the Cybermen is the background as well as the back story. The guys on the top catwalk are my nod to the metal miniatures I loved as a kid and my fascination with toy soldiers from my childhood- it’s fun to draw small toy sized images for me, I love to make them and look at them, and I think it’s fun for the fans as well to find them hiding in the background! In my mind as I created this image I had the 12th Legion of Cybermen on the run from someone (Daleks, Earth, Sontarans?) from a string of battles they have lost and the 12th Cybermen Legion is now close to defeat- but they are going to get massive reinforcements here at a lost tomb of frozen Cybermen they have located to turn the tide once and for all. As Cyber Controller says- WE WILL SURVIVE.

Below is my initial 80’s artwork, a ref model sheet of the Cybermen, the first thumbnail, a composition study and layout with POV lines and the final pencils. Enjoy!

Composition and Layout for Cybermen

First Thumbnail on 12th Cyber Legion

Quick Reference to Cybermen Models from 1966-2013

1987 Jason Lenox Cybermen pinup in colored pencil

1987 colored pencil artwork from Jason Lenox of the Tomb of the Cybermen Logo.

As a complete 180 from the Sontaran piece I did previously to this, I did use the diametrially opposed inking style of chiaroscuro to use extreme darks and lights to bring out the elements of the artwork. I also inked this in mind for coloring, which I envision to be sort of a dark (evil!!) area lit with red and orange lighting sources. This is why on the Master’s jacket I have a hard line of shadow next to a white area on his surfaces, as well as the “back lit” style of inking for the Dark Tardis control area.

Of particular note is the cross hatching and contouring to bring out the center of the piece- the rotted flesh and decaying cloak of the “Deadly Assassin” in the middle- I really tried to bring out something different here to the original photo reference, and I think I captured that rotted look in the skin and fabric with the mixed inking techniques, I’ll have to keep them in my bag of tricks for the future!

Overall, I felt the inks really brought the MASTER, Autons, Deadly Assasin and Axons to full evil life together with Roger Delgado. Hopefully the fans enjoy it to!

This is the final set of inks for the Sontaran Field Marshal pinup. The big decision on this was the style of inking, I avoided large areas of black and white also known as chiaroscuro in favor of more of a series of endless gray tones and small details. This was an editorial choice to show a drab interior of a sphere which is where the character is sitting. While less bold in one way, the piece was designed to do the “Shock and Awe” thing to the viewer with an overload of detail, which I enjoy doing sometimes. I used larger line weights to pull the foreground elements out of the background as opposed to fields of black behind the foreground to bring their shapes out.

I felt the piece was successful in the execution after it was completed. When I can make things like cabled bundles of wires fascinating to look at, it’s a sensory overload on the detail. Of note in the inking- the Tardis wording on the police box, it’s all there in ultra fine detail. In addition working on the blasted Cybermen was like conducting surgery with my ultra fine pens, every little bit of detail I could cram in was pushed in until I couldnt fit anything else in the space.

Ultimately, I think this piece did justice to the Sontaran character and showed us a never really seen piece of the Dr. Who universe in ultra fine detail- the interior of a battle worn Sontaran command and control ship. I think fans of these characters and creatures will enjoy the work that was put into the inking phase of this pinup.

So from the Daleks, to the Sontarans, and now Dr. Who’s arch nemesis- THE MASTER. The third of my five Doctor Who pinups featuring the villains of the show that I liked as a kid- THE MASTER was a stone cold nemesis to Dr. Who- the Moriarity to Who’s Holmes.

Some thoughts- as I see Dr. Fan art piling up at shows, I notice while there is about an endless supply of portraits of the actors that play the doctor and static TARDIS phone booths, we never, ever see pinups of the Master, and there have been six actors to play this amazing villain. This piece is a tribute to Roger Delgado, who died in 1973 in a bizarre car accident filming a movie. Mr. Delgado had personality and just nailed the character- he really looked “evil”, and played it to the hilt from 1971-73 as the first actor to play THE MASTER. As a nod to the new fans, I added the laser screwdriver into his right hand which is a post 2006 weapon of choice for THE MASTER.

Also we rarely see THE MASTER’S DARK TARDIS so I wanted to give a unique view of that. On the show- it was just a repainted version of Dr. Who’s- thanks cheap ass BBC. I wanted it to be black and lit with red and orange lights, and have some crazy architecture and geometry, note the off axis circles that are not parallel on the lit ceiling and huge screens for viewing the time stream. The final visual cue is the classic TARDIS control panel in the middle as the focal point – of course the MASTER’s evil version! Also to really fan art this thing out- Three MASTER episodes are included in the background on the view screens- “Claws of Axos” ( A Delgado Era Episode) with the AXOS monster and golden bug eyed version of AXOS, “The Deadly Assassin”- featuring an incarnation of THE MASTER faced by the 4th Doctor who was a decaying corpse hell bent on mayhem on Gallifrey, and finally “Spearhead in Space” with the animated plastic Autons going postal on a street with their gun hands and plastic faces (Another Delgado Era Episode). These are three things I’ve never seen drawn at all, except some portraits of the Deadly Assassin, which were generic as all heck. So basically this piece is just full to the brim with obscure, yet cool Dr. Who villain/monster imagery- focused on THE MASTER. Overall with all of these pieces from the Whoniverse- I wanted to make them epic, unlike the cheap ass BBC show always seemed to be. Now- I avoided the standard Daleks, and Cybermen… more on them in my next few pinups…. as I wanted to highlight some of the lesser known creatures from the show, which while cheaply done and normally fell short on the execution, always had great designs, they just never translated well onscreen with low tech Fx and stingy BBC budgets.

My story for the artwork is this is THE MASTER’s first foray into time, and he is holding a weapon from his future- laser screwdriver, and seeing scenes of the mayhem he will cause and looking at something we can’t see- perhaps his own death or the Time War in the new WHO continuity inside the DARK TARDIS. I also had a VOTE SAXON sticker as a nod to the new show, but I think Ill drop that in the inks, it isnt working visually.

Now originally I did a piece that highlighted the DARK TARDIS’s large interior on a lot, it is cool, but not dynamic, but I scratched it for a more dynamic interior view for the episode nods on the walls and cool lighting- I sketched it on a business card before dinner with my wife this week (she was 30 minutes late and I was killing time) , thumbnailed it at home after dinner, and nailed the pencils the next day- all 4 pieces are included below, and my source material from the show.

So in the spirit of the MASTER here is another quote exhange from an episode…